The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-11-27
INFAMOUS JURY LAWS.

prejudice and despOtlsm that Con
gress has made to cure imagined Nor
mon wrongs, there are none more per
nicious than those respecting juries. Il
is not generally understood, even
am"ng the people of Utah, how subver-
sive OF the ancient and fundamental
right e trial by jury are the laws of this
Territory. Inc essence of jury trial is
impartiality, and any system that de-
stroys this essential not only outrages
the greater freedom of the age and
country, but would violate the lesser
freedom of monarchial England five
centuries ago.
The Mormon problem" appears to
be q rock upon which, if upon any
thing the Constitution will go to pieces.
Immemorial rights cannot be lightly
sacrificed on the plea that the end
justi6es the means, without establish
ing precedents that are likely to become
the justification of tyrants. We would
warn our pseudo-statesmen of the dan
gers that confront them. This whole
sale trenching upon, if not positive VOL
alton of Constitutional principles In
dealing with the MoTmens, will yet fur
nish countless presidents to unserupul-
Gus legislators in the history of our
country. We all know what precedent
means-it dictates law and governs
courts. What was right is now
right, is the outrageous doc
trine that obtains in governmental
affsirs2 1t is IN error no. only because
it justifies present wrong by past wrong,
but ignores the tendency of mankind to
progress. to live and learn.
The jury laws in this Territory are in
the following shape. due to the inter
ference of Congress in LEGAL affairs.
The inevitable consequence of the
Poland law, and Congress must have in
tended the inevitable consequence of its
statute, is that the jury lists are made
up of Mormons and Gentiles in equal
parts and this, Notwithstanding the fact
that the former outnumber the latter in
the ratio of at least five to one. But
this is not the worst feature of the case,
for the Courts Immediately exhaust the
list and then, under the open Yenire. the
jurors are selected entirely from the |
minority, or may be, and generally are,
at the discretion of the Marshal.
In any case involving polygamy, no
Mormon can sit; there may be some
justification for this, yet, it will not be
forgotten, that the right of jury trial is
the right to trial by dozen men of
the ViciDage, selected neither because of
favor nor prejudice, but such men as
shall reflect the average sentiment of
tbs community. And, upon moments
reflection, it will be seen how essen -ial
to popular government such a rule is
the people, who are sovereign, or should
be, elect a legislature, or should elect
one, which makes unpopular laws, under
which offenders are tried with a great
chance of soquittal, because of popular
opposition to the law. Thus the people
have enjoyed the right not only of
eIecting lawmakers, but of regulating
largely the enforcement of resulting
statutes In criminal trials the test has
been, not as to the jurors bias for or
against the law, but as to his bias for
or against the defendant. Thelsw has
had to take its chances Of popular sup
port. Opprobrious legislation in Eng
land and Ameriea has always been
difficult of enforcement, because of the
obstinacy of hostile jurors, and yet l
how easy would conviction have been /
if no Juror had been accepted who was t
not only friendly but zealously friendly I
to the law
The whole trouble is that the people
OF Utah have not enjoyed the right of {
making their own laws. Mormon polyg- '
amists are tried by a most partial jury I
Of their aVowed religious and civil
opponents. If they obiectsthey may {
find precedent in colonial history
where our ancestors protested against
being tried by packed juries of Tories
and yet the Tories were the only ones i
attached to the special laWs-and our c
forefathers thought that in demanding !
& trial by the Ncinage, even by those /
opposed to the laws, they were asking s
no more than their due and an honest C
Interpretation of the right of jury trial. i
But whatever views conservative men s
may take as to the foregoing PROPOSE. s
ton, tCere is absolutely no room for b
divergence as to the constitutional i'm
morality" as Judge Black put it. of p
shaping laws, or permitting them to b
remain in such a shape that civil =
ana criminal cases in no way b
involving polygsmy, should be t,
tried before iuries drawn st the ri
pleasure OF the marshal entirely from O.